Fairburn family

William Thomas Fairburn, born England, married Sarah Tuckwell on 12 Apr 1819 in St Johns Church of England, Parramatta, Sydney, NSW Australia.

Ancestors of Sarah Tuckwell.

After their marriage, William and Sarah sailed on 27 July 1819 on the Brig 'General Gates' under Captain Rigg for New Zealand. William was a carpenter and a lay preacher or catachist for the C.M.S.

Anglican baptisms register at Auckland City Library.

Elizabeth 1821 married William Colenso in 1843.

John 1823 married Matilda Jane Lewis in 1851.

Richard Alexander 1820 at Kerikeri married Louisa Coney in 1851.

Edwin 1827 married Emma Coney in 1851.

Esther 1829 ? (not found in baptisms) married Joseph Edward Hickson in 1850.

In 1822 Sarah went back to Australia with her two children and William followed after. They owned land in NSW. They returned to the missions in the middle of 1823.

By the time the British government arrived to sign the Treaty, William and Sarah had been labouring in the land, teaching, carpentering, ministering for 20 years.

After the Treaty was signed, William was one of those entrusted with a copy to take to other Maori groups for signing.

When the administrators looked at his land claim they were under a lot of pressure to disallow it and there is a lot of talk in newspapers in Australia, New Zealand and overseas at this time about the amount of land he claimed. It was his undoing. Although he was allowed some land and had some land in Australia, a lot of it would have been next to worthless. He turned to drink. He wasn't the only casualty of the adiminstrators and at least he was allowed some land, some had everything taken from them and I sometimes wonder if their ancestors could turn to the Waitangi Tribunal for compensation even now.

Auckland Star, 22 April 1893. DEATH OF MR JOHN FAIRBURN. The demise of this well-known and respected colonist took place on Friday evening at his late residence, Glen Grove, Otahuhu. Mr Fairburn. was a son of the late Rev. W. T. Fairburn, of the Church Missionary Society and was born at the Bay of Islands in 1824. After leaving his early borne he took up his residence at Otahuhu, where he owned an extensive area of land. For many years he was a lay reader at the Church of the Holy Trinity, a member of the local Road Board, also of the Licensing Bench and a Justice of the colony. The funeral is announced to take place on Sunday afternoon at 2.45.

All the family members are listed in the early subscriptions to build Christ Church at Kororarkea in 1834.